IV.

Riseandgrowthoftradesuptothepresenttime.

Defeat and discouragement attend well-nigh every step
of the attempt to reach any conclusions regarding
women workers in the early years of the century.
It is true that 1832 witnessed an attempt at an investigation
into their status, but the results were of slight value,
actual figures being almost unattainable. The
census of 1840 gave more, and that of 1850 showed
still larger gain. In that of 1840 the number
of women and children in the silk industry was taken;
but while the same is true of the later one, there
is apparently no record of them in any printed form.
The New York State Census for the years 1845 and 1855
gave some space to the work of women and children,
but there is nothing of marked value till another
decade had passed.

It is to the United States Census for 1860 that we
must look for the first really definite statements
as to the occupations of women and children.
Scattered returns of an earlier date had shown that
the percentage of those employed in factories was
a steadily increasing one, but in what ratio was considered
as unimportant. In fact, statistics of any order
had small place, nor was their need seriously felt,
save here and there, in the mind of the student.

To comprehend the blankness of this period in all
matters relating to social and economic questions,
it is necessary to recall the fact that no such needs
as those of the mother country pressed upon us.
To those who looked below the surface and watched
the growing tide of emigration, it was plain that
they were, in no distant day, to arise; but for the
most part, even for those compelled to severest toil,
it was taken for granted that full support was a certainty,
and that the men or women who did not earn a comfortable
living could blame no one but themselves.

There were other reasons why any enumeration of women
workers seemed not only superfluous but undesirable.
For the better order, prejudice was still strong enough
against all who deviated from custom or tradition to
make each new candidate for a living shrink from any
publicity that could be avoided. Society frowned
upon the woman who dared to strike out in new paths,
and thus made them even more thorny than necessity
had already done.

It is impossible for the present, with its full freedom
of opportunity, to realize, or credit even, the difficulties
of the past, or even of a period hardly more than
a generation ago. It was of this time that Dr.
Emily Blackwell, one of the pioneers in higher work
for women, wrote:—­